A nice carp

I caught a good carp today. It took a fly intended for black bass and I had no reason initially to think it was not a big bass. The fly was cast in close to the margin and I had just begun to work it back when everything went solid.

I saw a flash of flank initially and it did seem pretty dark but then the fish sounded and for the next 10 minutes or so I saw nothing beyond the end of my fly line or the first few inches of leader.

It is an odd thing playing a fish from a float tube in deep water. The unseen fish is right beneath you and the rod is deeply arched and the tip pointing straight down. You keep the pressure on and try and work it to the surface but it is a slow process and you will often have to surrender the inches you retrieve as the fish bores down.

I was lucky today because I was able to find some shallow weeds to beach the fish (I had no landing net) and so I managed to maneuver the fish into a bay, hop out of the float tube and draw the fish into the shallows.

I was over the moon!

An unexpected bonus!

The fish took a fly of my own tying. It was something like a Lefty´s Deceiver and was about 3 inches long. The fly looks a bit beaten up in the photo (it´s even worse now!)

Harry Abbott saw a very big carp in Concepción but this is about as big as I have seen myself. It is certainly my biggest one so far!